Loan officers who want to add another layer to their marketing strategy should strongly consider video marketing. If you haven’t yet experimented with it in your marketing efforts, or if you’ve dabbled a little in the past but want to revisit it, now is a terrific time to do so. Video marketing is a perfect strategy to connect with your audience, expand your brand, and stand out from the competition. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you’re thinking about getting started:
What Equipment Will You Need?
One of the biggest misconceptions that professionals make when considering video marketing is that they’ll need to invest in expensive equipment to produce a quality product. This is simply not true. Loan officers can usually make a perfectly serviceable video using only their phone. If your initial efforts get a good response from your audience, then it may be time to consider an upgrade—but it’s really not necessary to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a new camera, microphone, editing software, etc. Personally I record all of mine on my Google Pixel and edit with basic tools.
What Are You Going to Talk About?
The thing that matters most in your videos is what you talk about. A common mistake some professionals make is treating video marketing as just one more way to introduce themselves to their audience. While it is a great opportunity for more exposure, a string of videos talking about your qualifications or your access to ‘the best rates’ are not going to get much traction. Starting with a video introduction is perfectly acceptable, but then you’re going to have to shift to creating value for your viewership— dive into the questions, concerns, misconceptions, and any other area you find yourself regularly discussing with clients. Another way to overcome this is batching. Try doing multiple videos at once for a series and break them up to have videos queued up for an extended period of time.
Add Some Personality
Maybe the biggest advantage of video marketing, when compared to your other marketing mediums, is that you can really let your personality come through. When recording your video, imagine you’re talking with a client face-to-face. Most importantly, be yourself. You don’t need to create a new, amplified persona. Enthusiasm is always good, but you should strive to be as authentic and relatable as possible.
How Long Should Your Videos Be?
As I mentioned above, you want your videos to provide value to your audience. In addition to the subject matter being useful, you also want to ensure your videos are the optimal length. A video that’s too long can easily lose your viewers’ attention mid-way through. Plan your videos out ahead of time so you can keep your videos concise, to the point, and so people will watch them in their entirety in one sitting. I personally aim to keep mine under a minute, but every brand is a little different, so be mindful of who you’re speaking to and about.
Give Some Thought to Your Titles
Most viewers will likely come across your videos on social-media sites. They may not be actively searching for the topic you’re discussing, so you need titles that will catch their attention and pique their curiosity. Think about using titles that contain a question that someone may want the answer to, or maybe a statement that highlights its urgency or importance. Once the video is recorded, you may feel like your work is done, but if you skimp on the title and nobody watches it, then all of your work will be for naught. Invest a couple minutes to come up with something strong.
Video marketing is a fantastic opportunity to showcase who you are to your audience. Done correctly, viewers will get a direct glimpse into what it would be like to work with you. As they watch more and more videos, you’re building trust, familiarity and connection that just isn’t possible using other marketing mediums.
If you’d like to talk more about getting started with video marketing, or there’s something else I can be of assistance with, please reach out. I’m always happy to help.
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